Transcript Historicizing Modernity

Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
•Well known poet
Serious
even before
Canterbury Tales
•Serious writing of
the day was in
Latin or French;
but Chaucer wrote
in English, making
it respectable once
again.
•Known as the “Father of English poetry”
∙First poet to be buried in Poet’s Corner of
Westminster Abbey
The Canterbury Tales
• A collection of stories united by a “frame story”
(an outer story that unites several short stories)
• Considered a masterpiece though never
completed
• Uses different literature genres popular at the
time (romance, poetry, ribaldry & religious
stories)
• Provides a picture of what life and people were
like in the Middle Ages
•Written in Middle English in ten-syllable
lines of couplets (the poetic qualities are often
lost when translating to modern English).
“And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
Redy The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.
Bifil that in that seson, on a day,
In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay
to wenden on my pilgrymage
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage.”
Setting
• The story begins in
April of 1380.
• This was a
common time for
pilgrimages (trips
made to a shrine
or sacred place).
The Prologue: Introduces and describes 29
pilgrims (plus the narrator) who are traveling
together from London to Canterbury.
The Tabard
Inn
•
-just outside of
London
-where Chaucer
meets the pilgrims
on their way to
Canterbury
-the Host of the inn
decides to join
them
Canterbury Cathedral: The pilgrims are going to
visit the holy shrine of St. Thomas, 55 miles away.
•The Host suggests they tell stories to pass the time on
the trip. Whoever tells the best story will win a meal
when they return to the Tabard Inn.
The “Tales”
• At the end of the
Prologue, the
characters begin to
tell their “tales.
• Each character was to
tell two stories on the
trip to Canterbury
and two on the way
home.
Canterbury Tales Characters:
– Narrator (“Chaucer”)
– Host (Harry Bailey)
– Knight
• Squire
• Yeoman
– Prioress
• Second Nun
• Priest
– Monk
– Friar
– Merchant
– Oxford student
– Man of Law
– Franklin
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Five Guildsmen
Cook
Shipman
Physician
Wife of Bath
Parson
Plowman
Manciple
Reeve
Miller
Summoner
Pardoner
Chaucer describes each character’s physical
appearance and personality.
•The characters represent the four social classes
in European feudal society
– Peasant: work (agricultural labor)
– Clergy: instruct and pray
– Feudal: own, protect, or manage the land
– Merchant: support themselves outside
the feudal system
The Unfinished Tales: Chaucer planned to write
120 stories but had finished only 24 before his
death in 1400.